What if "male" and "female" are not the only options - how do other genders express themselves through art?

Many of us assume that there are only two genders and that being female or male follows from the sex of our biological bodies. Inspired by the photographs of acclaimed New Zealand photographer Rebecca Swan, Assume Nothing focuses on the art, photography and performances of five "alternative" gender artists of Maori, Samoan-Japanese, and Pakeha-European descent, posing the questions: "What if "male" and "female" are not the only options? How do other genders express themselves through art?" Intimate present-day interviews and actuality are interspersed with lush Super-8, 2-D and 3-D animations and beautifully staged performances - blurring the conventions of documentary, animation, drama and gender in the process. Meticulously crafted, playful and provocative, Assume Nothing travels from Wellington’s Red Rocks to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to explore the potent creative world that flourishes between and beyond genders.

I first came across Rebecca Swan’s extraordinary book “Assume Nothing” in the window display of a downtown bookshop in Auckland, New Zealand. The striking cover photograph of an androgynous woman’s taut torso, leaning backwards over buttocks intricately tattooed with Maori ta moko drew me into the store. I sat perched there on a tiny stool until I had examined the stunning photographs and stories of alternative gender identity from cover to cover. As a filmmaker who has focussed on issues of gender, sexuality and media representation for several years, I was immediately drawn to contact Rebecca, and to propose that we collaborate on a film, turning her stunning portraits from the book into “living” portraits in a feature-length documentary. The first film resulting from this rich and fruitful collaboration was the short documentary Black and White (2006), featuring Rebecca and one participant from her book – intersex activist Mani Bruce Mitchell.

In the three years since Black and White was completed it has screened at over forty international film festivals and I have had the privilege to work with Rebecca, Mani, Ema Lyon, Jack Byrne and Shigeyuki Kihara to expand that short film into the feature-length documentary Assume Nothing (2009). In the early stages of extending the project Bex, Jack and I talked over the different directions the film could take, with the initial intention being to work with people from the book. Over lunch one day though, Bex and Jack were describing all the incredible gender-blurring performances celebrating the launch of Bex’s book years before. We were struck by how unusually rich and groundbreaking that night had been. Suddenly the vision of a film grounded in the spirit of Bex’s book, but focussing on the potency of creativity interwoven with stories of “creating” a personal gender identity materialised. While that vision for the film came together swiftly and in a flurry of excitement, it has taken five years to finally bring to fruition and the film participants have become a huge and inspiring part of my life, while I have been a recurring and persistent feature in theirs! The participants have been extraordinarily generous and trusting, and the project has required much patience, determination and courage as it slowly (and seemingly endlessly) unfolded. Early funding from the Screen Innovation Production Fund was a huge boost and meant that I could keep pursuing my requests for “a chat” which always unfolded into more filming, and then a little more filming…just one more question…would you mind if we bring the camera?

Rebecca Swan’s own artistry as a photographer, and her potent but dignified aesthetic was a keystone for the way I approached the film’s style. While it was important for colour and vibrancy to also permeate the film, I wanted her elegant photographic images to sit comfortably within the body of a beautifully crafted and eloquent visual frame. With Bex’s full-scale photographs, an earlier version of Assume Nothing and eight short related films have formed an exhibition touring New Zealand Public Art Galleries and Museums from 2008-10, and the New Zealand Human Rights Commission have held public workshops for the Trans community and friends in every community where the exhibition opens. This is my hope, that while my film and Bex’s images will not tell you what to think about gender, they may open up cracks in your thinking and move you to embrace the idea of assuming nothing about her, him, you, me.